


Just Inadvertent Simulation

by blackviolets



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Aftercare, Alternate Universe - College/University, Anxiety, Crying, Exam Stress, M/M, Non-Sexual Kink, Self-Spanking, Spanking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-10 18:52:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5596942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackviolets/pseuds/blackviolets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Best bros, Niall and Harry, study together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Inadvertent Simulation

**Author's Note:**

> Spanking is so important to me.
> 
> The title is from Pearl Jam's song Mankind.

They have been friends since sophomore year when Harry sat next to Niall in _World History 2112_. They bonded over the tragedy of 9 am classes and the workload that comes with majoring in history. Now they’re halfway through their senior year with only one more semester before graduation.

Since they’re usually in the same classes each year, they’ve become good study partners, balancing each other. They usually keep each other grounded and focused; however, lately the dynamics of the duo have been changing.

They’re on the floor of Harry’s dorm. Niall’s upper back is in pain from leaning against Harry’s bed frame, he keeps shifting across the uneven boxspring holding up the mattress. His legs are crossed with his study notes fanned out in front of him. His eyes aren't focusing and he can feel a headache threatening the middle of his forehead. Harry is shirtless on his stomach, leaning on one elbow to keep his head tilted up. He’s going through class notes on his laptop; Niall can see lines of sentences scroll up and down on the monitor.

Niall suggested they pull an all-nighter for this massive essay-only test. It’s in their toughest class, _Topics of Irish History_. Niall had to remind Harry that the test counts for 40 percent of their grades, so they should be well prepared. They started hours ago and it’s already 10 pm. Niall isn't retaining any new information. He’s exhausted from the past three hours of reading and he knows he’s too far down the rabbit hole for Harry to pull him out of his stress spiral now.

Niall rubs his temples with one hand and draws in a breath. He can’t fail this test because then he’ll undoubtedly fail the class and have to take it over. There’s just no time. Niall’s last semester is supposed to be a breeze, but he can stand to rearrange some things. Niall drops his head back, rests against the bed, and roughly exhales. He looks upward towards the ceiling. He can take five classes next semester instead of the four he’s committed to already; there is no way he’s missing spring graduation for one class credit.

Harry turns from his laptop, his backbones pop from being in that position for so long. The noise causes Niall to lift his head and look over. He can see Harry’s back muscles flex with the movement. Harry looks up at Niall with his brows raised and eyes wide like he’s waiting for an answer. Harry must have said something. Niall guesses the confusion is evident on his face because then Harry calls for a break.

“Hmmm. I think we need to attack this differently,” Harry says slowly as he puts a hand down on the carpet, lifting himself off the ground to a sitting position. Niall clears his throat and collects the loose papers at his feet into one clean stack.

“Yeah, maybe.”

Harry scoots over to sit next to Niall against the uncomfortable bed frame and crosses his legs at the ankle. He then pulls his laptop onto his straightened legs. Niall watches him click into his browser's history.

“I found a website that lets us put in information to kind of make flashcards. I think it can help.”

Niall nods but doesn’t say anything. He watches Harry’s fingers trace lines on the mouse-pad. Harry seems so calm right now even though his grade is riding on this test too. Harry groans then mumbles something under his breath, he must not be able to find the site. Niall scans from Harry’s hand up his body to his jaw, then to his lips, following a path to his eyes. He realizes Harry doesn’t look as tired as Niall feels.

He looks for the signs of stress in Harry’s eyes, but all he notices is that they are slightly gray from the light of the computer screen. Niall follows Harry’s gaze to the screen, watching him go through days of browsing history. A stream of the same website, covering a significant chunk of the history page, catches Niall’s attention. Harry rushes past those sections. He must go there a lot. _Wait._ Niall catches a glimpse of the name of the website.

_Spankotube?_

Niall cackles loudly and expects Harry to laugh with him, but he notices how quiet and tense Harry has gotten all of a sudden _._ Harry quickly stretches up both arms to put his laptop on the bed behind him.

“Shit. I can’t find it maybe I’ll just google it.” Harry says it so fast that the sentence almost comes out as one word.

“Right,” Niall quips, “want anything out of the ‘fridge?” Niall pulls his elbows back and leans his weight on the mattress behind him to get up. He walks towards the mini refrigerator on the other side of the room.

“Nope,” Harry pops the ‘p’ at the end of the word. He’s already gotten off of the floor and set up his laptop at his desk. He’s probably looking for the website or _clearing his browsing history_. Niall grabs a Red Bull for himself and a bottle of water for Harry regardless because they’ve been friends long enough for Niall to know that Harry always at the very least wants a bottle of water.

The room is tense, but Niall isn’t going to press the issue, not while they have more important things to handle. It’s just that Harry has never done anything like this before. He’s acting as if he's been caught doing something wrong.

Niall walks back, puts the bottle on the desk and sits down on the bed. The mattress squeaks. Niall pops open the can and gulps half of the drink, he stops to slurp the excess around the rim.

“You know,” Niall says while placing the can on the floor, “maybe you should go to the school’s website. They usually have links for quick studying.”

“Yeah,” Harry replies without looking up.

 

xxx

 

After learning that they both passed the test everything was back to normal, though, they still haven’t talked about the weirdness after the browser history incident.

Niall is curious, though. So when he finally has some downtime, he finds himself typing “spankotube” into his search bar. The search results show videos of people with red bottoms and welts, some bent over someone else’s knee. He swallows the lump in his throat and adjusts himself in his seat. Niall only knows what he’s seen in movies, spanking is used by some people to get off, it’s part of a fetish or something. He’s never looked into it too much to be honest.

Harry must be into spanking, it's probably why he was so weird a few nights ago. Harry has no reason to be embarrassed, not in front of Niall. He moves the mouse over to open a new tab. He searches “spanking.”

He reads for hours about erotic spanking, corporal punishment, implements, whatever he can find. He finally lands on a site that explains spanking therapy, stress relief through giving and/or receiving pain. Niall wants to ask Harry about it. He has to know if this is what Harry’s been doing to stay stress free, but he also doesn’t wish to cross a line.

 

xxx

 

Niall’s been preoccupied with the mountain of assignments he’s been given. It’s two essays, three quizzes, a take home test, one huge research paper, and a book he’s yet read. And all projects are due in less than a month. So he hasn’t thought about his spanking research in weeks, to say the least.

He’s sitting on the sofa in his dorm, trying to type out on an essay. There’s classical music blaring from his desktop in the corner of the room. Harry told Niall that the music would clear his mind, allow _great oceans_ to make _waves_ through his ears or something strange like that. Harry probably thought it all up while he was speaking, but Niall needs all of the help he can get right now. Finals are coming up soon, and his stress levels are still through the fucking roof. The music isn’t helping.

Niall gets distracted by the taping of his fingers on the laptop keys. He can never concentrate with his room looking like a hurricane had blown through.

His coffee table is covered in books and research notes; dried out highlighters are thrown all over the room. He can smell the reminisce of the burrito he had earlier and his coffee mug is empty. He looks over his shoulder at the ticking clock on the wall. _6:45._ He’s been sitting in the same spot on this sofa since lunch, and he still has 13 more pages to write. _Ugh._

Niall stretches audibly, reaching his arms above his head. He forces his legs to straighten under the coffee table, they make craking noises with the stretch, and he stands up. If Niall cleans up a bit, he’ll be able to focus. After 20 minutes of straightening up and making a fresh pot of coffee, he sits back down on the sofa with his mug, pulls out the laptop he’d been working on and starts to type again.

After retyping the same sentence twelve times, Niall closes his computer with a huff and puts it down next to him. He leans back against the sofa, rubs his face with one hand and inhales deeply.

“I gotta get this done,” he says to no one.

He starts thinking about all of the websites he had read about spanking. He remembers reading about self-spanking, and figures now is a good time to try. If it worked, he would be able to focus; if it didn’t, well, he wouldn’t be losing anything either.

Niall grabs a pillow off of the sofa and heads to the small restroom in his room. It’s only a toilet and a sink with a long oval mirror above it. The bathroom is a step up from the freshman dorm rooms that only have a sink and force you to use a communal toilet and showering area. At least now he can pee in the morning without standing next someone with awful morning breath.

He stares at himself through the mirror, takes in a deep breath through his nose and parts his lips with the exhale; he’s doing this. He turns away from the mirror and leans down to close the toilet seat. Niall drops the pillow he grabbed and puts it on top of the seat. He lifts one leg after the other to put his knees on top of the pillow, and shifts his weight to balance himself with an elbow on the back of the toilet.

With one hand he pulls down his sweatpants and boxer-briefs low enough for the fabric of his clothes to catch right below his cheeks. He looks back at the mirror to take in the sight and smirks at the ridiculousness of it all. He slides his white t-shirt up a bit in the back to get a better look. He can feel waves of heat on his naked butt coming from the vent on the adjacent wall, it sends a chill down his spine.

He finally lifts a hand and sweeps it hesitantly on the closest cheek. There’s a small clap that echoes in the room. He likes the sound and does it again on the same cheek, harder, this time, making the echo louder. Niall feels a slight sting on his hand and his ass. He realizes he’s holding his breath. He exhales, then hits himself again. Twice, once on both cheeks, making his soft cock bounce gently against his upper thigh. Again. Then Again. The smacks slowly get faster and increasingly more powerful.

He’s starting to become more aware of the _sensation,_ noticing the pain, then the release. He watches his cheeks jiggle from each blow -- the redness from where he’s touching himself. The tension from the past few weeks might leave his body; he can almost feel the clarity he longs for, and he knows it’s not far away. His confidence is growing with each quick strike.

Meanwhile, the arm he is leaning on is starting to get wobbly, it shakes with strain from his position. Niall keeps going, though. Maybe if he can just get into a better posi-

He falls entirely off of the toilet seat and topples onto the floor along with the pillow. His ass is hot and pink from the spanking and the cold tiles below him feel achingly wonderful. When he knows that he hasn’t broken anything he howls with laughter. He imagines what this would have looked like if someone had walked in. Whatever they thought was going on would have been exactly what he was doing. He cackles more. Niall admits to himself that he does feel a little better, less anxious for sure, but he’s not confident he’ll be getting any more writing done tonight.

 

xxx

 

The next day Niall stops by Harry’s room with his books and take-out to see if Harry wants to work together. Niall really has to get into this paper and Harry is usually pretty helpful.

“Hey, Harry!” Niall says when Harry opens the door. He holds up the bag.

“Hi, brother!” Harry replies, glancing at the bag of food and back to Niall. He frowns. “You look like shit.”

“Thanks,” Niall scoffs then pushes past him into the room.

Later, they’re working quietly, Niall is sitting at Harry’s desk typing slowly while looking down at the textbook in his lap. His eyes are tired, and he sighs loudly unknowingly. Harry’s at a small table a few feet away, Niall can hear him mumbling to himself about the Byzantine Empire. Harry’s scooping into an empty carton of greek yogurt then looks up at Niall.

“Hey Niall, listen, can I ask you a question?” Harry doesn’t wait for an answer. He continues with a wicked grin, “How was the Roman Empire cut in half?” Niall doesn’t look up from his lap.

“Uh…,” Niall scratches through his hair as he searches for the answer in his mind, “I’m pretty sure it was divided into-”

“-with a pair of Caesars!!!” Harry blurts out while leaning back to drop the spoon and the empty carton into the trashcan behind his chair. He’s smiling from ear to ear. Niall laughs deeply, indulging Harry.

“I can’t believe you,” Niall says through his laughter, he’s almost brought to tears. He loves Harry’s jokes; they’re ridiculous, but he tries so hard.

“Hey,” Harry calls to get Niall’s attention, “wanna take a break? The last season of Spartacus is on Netflix; we can start it?”

“Yeah, man, of course.” Niall needs a rest. His paper is coming along, but it's like pulling teeth. He just needs to get out of his own head. He watches Harry setup Netflix on the tv behind his bed. Harry’s facing away from Niall, who’s now on the sofa in front of Harry’s bed. Niall’s eyes travel down Harry’s body, they stop at Harry’s ass on accident. Niall thinks about the spanking he gave himself yesterday and how red his ass had gotten. He wonders if Harry spanks himself to stay calm in stressful situations. Or maybe he spanks other people.

He had never met anyone that Harry was dating and they've never talked about it. He doesn’t think Harry keeps that a secret intentionally, it just never comes up in conversation. Questions start to swirl in Niall's mind: Has Harry ever spanked any of the people he’s been out with? Or do they spank him?

He’s lost in thought, and by the time he realizes, Harry’s already next to him on the sofa. Niall looks at the television, there’s a battle happening, and swords are clanking against each other. He has no idea what’s going on. Niall leans over to nudge Harry with his arm to ask him to rewind or, at least, explain to him what the hell is happening, but Harry is already looking at him. He pauses the show.

“You alright, man?” Harry questions. “We don’t have to watch this if you wanna do something else; that’s cool.”

“Yeah, no, I’m good,” Niall snaps out of the daze he’s in and leans back to one side of the couch to stretch his legs on a cushion toward Harry.

Harry looks down at his hands. He seems nervous when he taps Niall's socked foot.

“Niall, I wanna ask you something, and I want you to answer honestly...” Niall shifts in his seat. Harry’s hands are folded together, wringing his fingers, “...it’s not gonna be bad, okay?” He lets his hands go, one falls to grab under his thigh, the other to pull at his bottom lip.  “I just wanna know if maybe… if you think that it would be okay...” Niall’s patient with him, he waits. Harry does this sometimes.

Harry takes a breath and furrows his brow.  “Maybe if we’d do something it’ll make you feel…” He shakes his head. “I don’t wanna like…” Harry’s basically rambling at this point. He pauses his string of words and looks up to search for what he wants to say.

Silence.

“I want you to spank me,” the words just fall out of Niall’s mouth. He doesn’t even know where they came from.

There's a pause then they both burst out laughing, giggling until their stomachs hurt. Niall leans his head back to allow the heftiest laugh to exit his body. When they both calm down and catch their breaths, Harry folds one leg over the other. He's still smiling when he turns to find Niall’s eyes.

“So was that serious?” Harry coughs. “How did you know what I was going to ask?”

“I’m pretty serious, I think,” Niall says looking into Harry’s eyes. “It wasn’t _that_ hard to guess with your search history out there for the world to see, bro.” Niall starts to grin.

“Sneaky,” Harry shakes his head smiling sincerely. He gets up to turn the television off then turns back toward Niall, leaning against the bedpost. He crosses his arms. “I want to do this for you. I think it can help you focus.”

“Yeah, me too. I read about it and yeah, exactly,” Niall interjects enthusiastically.

They talk about how it should work. Niall learns that Harry takes spanking very seriously. He talks about a safeword for them if things get out of hand. They decide on a simple system: green for _great keep going_ , yellow for _slow down I’m about to break_ , and red for _stop_. Niall knows that Harry has paddles and floggers, along with lots of other implements, but they settle on just Harry’s hand because they’re just starting out.

Niall feels cared for already, in a way he knows can’t do on his own.

 

xxx

 

Niall's been naked in front of him before, and he's not embarrassed when Harry asks him to strip down. Harry places baby lotion, wet wipes, and a cup of water on the table, _just in case,_ he walks over to Niall. 

Niall is bottomless; ass out, draped over the arm of the sofa with his feet on the floor. A pillow is under his stomach with his soft cock pushed in between. Niall’s eyes are closed as he listens to the classical music playing quietly in the background. He can relax and let the music flow through him now. He trusts Harry. They’ve been through a lot together, so when Harry asks if he’s ready there’s no hesitation on his part, he’s ready for this. Harry begins by rubbing a hand over Niall’s naked cheeks. They’re pale white now. Niall is surprised how fast the redness disappeared from last night’s spanking. He wishes he could’ve gone longer. Harry squeezes a cheek as if he knows Niall’s mind is racing, and he needs to keep him grounded. Niall’s stomach flutters like he has thousands of butterflies trying to fly out. Harry clears his throat.

“Come on, Niall. You gotta pay attention.”

Niall opens his eyes and leans more into the pillow.

“Okay, yeah, you're right.”

Niall feels Harry pull back. He anticipates a hard whack. _Tap._ Harry lightly taps his ass. Niall drops his head down, letting his forehead rest in the couch cushion below him. He hears Harry exhale and snort. Harry pulls back again. This time, Niall is expecting the same amount of force. _WHAM._ Niall grunts and looks back to Harry who’s smiling so deeply his dimples are peeking through. Niall turns back around and tightly closes his eyes again.

“Are you okay, Niall?”

“Yeah. Peachy. Erm, green. Keep goin’,” Niall’s voice cracks. He shifts his weight from one leg to another, bracing for the next strike.

Niall knows that Harry’s just warming up. The swipes get harder one after the other, with Harry pausing after each to slide a hand down Niall's back, checking in. Niall pushes his ass back, towards Harry, giving him small moans to show that he's still there and aware.

After Harry builds up a steady rhythm, he surprises Niall. He spanks him, six times in a row, alternating between asscheeks. Harry stops for a second then. _Smack._ The pain sparks up Niall’s spine. _Smack._ It’s fucking euphoric now. All he can think about is what’s coming next. _Smack._ The sounds are echoing around the room just like in Niall’s bathroom, but he can hear them more clearly somehow. _Smack. Smack. Smack._ It’s like the sounds are meant to be there, mingling with the strings and piano coming from Harry’s speakers. _Smack. Smack._

He calls out, “Christ. Fuck.” The hotness on his ass is threatening to engulf him. He lets himself become lost in ecstasy. _Smack._ Then he feels it, warm wetness on his face. It travels to his lips. _Smack._ It tastes salty. It’s pooling around his face on the couch cushion. Tears. He's crying.

“Y-yellow,” Niall forces out the word. Harry lightly taps Niall’s ass once and rubs softly, careful not to push too hard.

“How do you feel?” Harry asks, concerned.

Niall slides off the pillow and onto his knees, he looks up at Harry, but doesn't say anything. His arms fall limp beside him. He can’t stop crying. Harry quickly sits down next to Niall and pulls him into a hug. It’s then that Niall realizes he’s shaking and sweating.

“It’s okay, Niall. I promise. You’re okay.” Harry’s voice is lower than a whisper. He’s rocking back and forth with Niall in his arms patting down his sweaty hair. When Niall stops sobbing Harry wipes his face with a wet wipe, a moment later Niall feels the pain start to sink into the backs of his thighs and up to his butt.

A single tear slides down beside the bridge of Niall’s nose. Harry wipes the tear using his thumb, Niall tilts into the touch. Then Harry kisses slightly above Niall's hairline. Niall feels Harry shift up, hears him grunt as he puts out one knee for leverage to stand. Niall is easily pulled to his feet and lead back to the sofa. He sits down first, then Harry situates himself close next to him. Harry wraps his arm around Niall’s shoulder and Niall’s head falls to Harry’s chest. He listens to Harry’s heart drum along with the music still echoing around the room. Niall’s breathing is finally calm as he takes in Harry’s scent, a mixture of sweat and cologne.

They sit that way for a while until Harry offers to rub cool lotion on Niall’s achy bottom.

 

xxx

 

“Bro, I’m starting to think you know what you’re talking about with this classical music stuff,” Niall says through laughter a while later when he’s finally finished with his paper.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
